In today's episode, Screen Tones becomes SCREAM TONES! We're gonna talk all about VILLAINS, just in time for Halloween. Our speakers all have various villain types in their webcomics. How do they go about writing them - and why do a lot of webcomics lack a villain?

What is a villain and how do they work in webcomics?

For Renie, villains are primary antagonists, but not all antagonists are villains. Villains are there to make things difficult for the protagonist. Rae relies more on the characteristics of the character rather than their role in the story. An antagonistic villain often provides a good foil for the hero and acts in opposition to the hero of the story. Phin adds that the villain helps the hero grow, either positively or negatively, by challenging them. Villains also act and have beliefs contrary to the world the story exists in. Clam’s villains are identified by their convictions, whether they enjoy what they’re doing or not. Villain’s convictions are stronger than a regular antagonist. Krispy reiterates that a villain can be an antagonist, but antagonists are not always villainous, it is very dependent on how the character is presented. Similarly, the villains of Clam’s comic are not necessarily antagonistic, though they are still villains.

Rae brings up the Dungeons and Dragons alignment chart for more thoughts on characterizing a villain. Lawful evil where actions are often acceptable to the general population, in spite of being evil. Neutral evil villains are ambivalent to the morality around them and tend to do what needs to be done. Chaotic evil villains care more about generally disrupting the order rather than accomplishing a specific goal. When the villains start stepping out of those three categories they tend to become more sympathetic. For Rae, a sympathetic villain could have been a hero, but because of circumstance or opportunity, they crossed the line from heroics to villainy. Phin adds that a villain garners more sympathy when they are relatable and redeemable.

How do you make a believable villain?

Claire finds believability in how the backstory makes sense and being able to see the progression of how the character fell. Adding to that, the character’s personality needs to back up their path. The character’s choices need to be believable and match with their progression. Renie also enjoys seeing the straight line of the progression of the characters and how they fell. Another way to show this progression is through the use of character foils. A character with a similar backstory who simply took a different direction from the same branching point can help emphasize the villain’s own choices. Obviously you can have villains that can simply want chaos for chaos’s sake, but taking that route can be difficult to make memorable.

Phin’s villain spawned from a regular character whose arc took a more antagonistic route. In response, her creators were inspired to evolve her into a full blown villain. Clam didn’t begin with any villains either. Her villains were the answer to worldbuilding questions that helped her to flesh out the world. Renie’s villains were some of the first characters that decided the plot of her comic and from there the protagonists were added in to counteract the villains desires. She also wanted to have both the more sympathetic villain as well as a classic, evil villain. Krispy’s comic is more of a slow burn and their villain took five years to actually make it to the public eye. To compensate for this, they added a lot of foreshadowing and it allowed them to set up the big reveal very well.

How do you handle a villain that becomes a bit overpowered?

For Rae, her villain is very powerful, but is bad at being a villain thus limiting their abilities. Phin thinks that you should just have fun with the extremely powered up villain and make it enjoyable for yourself. If you do decided to try to combat it, adding rules that your villain has to abide by forces them to display less power. Clam gives her villains “one big handicap” each to keep them from overpowering the story. Similar to being overpowered is the unchecked power creep. When a villain is continuously growing in power to the point that there is no way to defeat them or to defeat them the world needs to break, it can be very predictable and redundant.

Why does it seem villains are less common in webcomics?

Rae comments that it seems to be going with the times while Phin points out that villains were often added specifically to aid in presenting a moral or a value in a story. What people want to read these days is less black and white. And villains are not always needed in a story so some creators opt to focus on different aspects. Time is also a limitation in webcomics. Because of how slowly webcomics can progress, focus and time has to be reserved for the priority of the comic, which doesn’t always lend to spending time building and portraying a villain.

Villains are fun to write and can be a fun element to add to your story. What are your favorite types of villains?

Relevant Links

Dungeons and Dragons alignment chart
Power Creep trope
Achilles’ Heel trope
Comics Code Authority / Motion Picture Production Code (Hays Code)

Media mentioned (villain archetypes):

Megamind of Megamind (Movie, 2010)

Miscellaneous villains of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure (Manga/Anime Series, 2012)

Lord of Nightmares in Slayers (Manga/Anime Series, 1995)

Joker of Batman (Comic/Movie/TV Series, 1940)

Team Rocket Trio of Pokemon (Manga/Anime Series, 1997)

Jareth the Goblin King of Labyrinth (Movie, 1986)

Hannibal of Hannibal (TV Series, 2013)

Media mentioned (undoing/resetting escalating danger):

Back to the Future (Movie, 1985)

Avengers: Endgame (Movie, 2019)

Avengers: Infinity War (Movie, 2018)

Aladdin (Movie, 1992)

Dragon Ball Z (Manga/Anime Series, 1989)

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Episode Release Date: October 27, 2021

Episode Credits:

Kristen Lee (@feathernotes) - she/they, ghostjunksickness.com lunarblight.com

Rae Baade (@overlordrae) - they/them, empyreancomic.com

Renie Jesanis (@renieplayerone) - she/they, kateblast.com

Phineas Klier (@tentacledeity) - they/them, heirsoftheveil.fervorcraft.de

Claire Niebergall (Clam) - she/her, phantomarine.com

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The Intro "DO IT (feat. Shia LaBeouf)", and the Outro "It's Good To See You Again!!", both by Adrianwave, have been used and modified in good faith under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Licensed. Edits include: Fade IN/OUT, and a repeat added to the beginning of "It's Good To See You Again!!". For more information on this creative commons use, please reference https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.